Dominican Republic 2024 Day Three

Today we started our Day off with our morning devos on the roof, followed by an absolutely outstanding, out of this world, bomb of a breakfast. After breakfast we dressed to the nine’s and walked three and a half hours in dog years (aka 15mins) to the sound of worship coming from the church since it was a thousand decibels. In the Dominican Republic, they like to get all their money’s worth from their speakers by turning the volume all the way up, and the excitement for worship matched the sound and was worth more.

The sermon was about love and the preacher first talked about 1 Corinthians 13:2-5 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud”. He continued by saying that we are stronger together, and that there is too much division in the church today and that if you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they don’t contradict each other but instead are united. It was interesting to see the differences between the churches in Canada compared to the churches here such as the excitement, the praise, and how one song could last 20 minutes… no joke. It was a Haitian church and they all dressed in their Sunday best, which was cool to see!

After making our way back we had sloppy joes and rice for lunch and had some free time until 2:15pm, which was followed by cleaning the school yard before facing what we were told would be 13 year olds for a baseball game. We even practiced beforehand and showed them how we do it in Canada (by losing 20-1). But to be fair they were a pro baseball team that were all 18 year olds! It was still sweet to connect with them and see how happy they were playing this game. After the game we chatted with a few of them and shook hands, while throwing some shade at each other 😉

We had a late dinner (chicken with rice, plantains, salad, and finished with the best chocolate ice cream) which was followed by evening devos. We discussed twelve different insights to prepare us for what we will be doing this week and covered some points like: how we are here for God’s mission and not our own, how God does not send us to judge others, how love is the universal language, and how God provides us with all the resources we need.

Sincerely buslengths,

Brayden, Hunter, and Tymon